Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Tom Bunyard
OLD RULES DO NOT APPLY TO NEW MEDIA
They say “old habits die hard”…and so do the old radio rules. Ever notice how the same radio programming tactics from the 1980’s and 1990’s are still being used today? Radio programming is changing quickly with text, web, PPM, etc. Are you adapting fast enough? Here are five points to consider if you radio boat is taking on water…
The Sign On Your PD’s Door: “Beware of Old Dog”
Old school program directors were born and bred to talk to the masses…to look out for the interest of their listeners as a whole. Nothing wrong with that concept in the old radio world. The problem is that now program directors have to fight for listeners AND deeper interaction with their P1’s. Want to know the secret to what the successful program directors and marketing directors in PPM markets are doing? Big PPM numbers are coming to the stations which have the most engagement through all forms of new media with their heavy users. And the stations that are earning the big PPM numbers started that process long before PPM dropped in their market. Although the days of thirty minute music sweeps, feature artist weekends, and trip of a lifetime getaways are not over for radio, you better have a program director in place that understands the new game: interaction and engagement equals ratings and revenue.
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Posted on August 27th, 2008 by admin
Try connecting to a high-speed wireless network from a car, and you are pretty much limited to one method: rigging your laptop computer with a special modem and subscribing to a costly, and sometimes temperamental, wireless service.
But Autonet Mobile, a start-up wireless technology company based in San Francisco, is expected to announce this week that it has reached an agreement with Avis Rent A Car System to provide a rolling Wi-Fi hotspot to Avis customers by March. For $10.95 a day, Avis will issue motorists a notebook-size portable device that plugs into a car’s power supply and delivers a high-speed Internet connection.
“This shows us a glimpse of where we will be in the future,” said Roger Entner, a wireless telecommunications analyst at Ovum, a consulting firm based in London. (NYTimes)
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Remerge Note: According to the Washington Post (April 16, 2008) Pandora enjoys over 1-million listeners per day online. One in seven listen to radio online each week. How will this mobility impact your current listenership?
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Posted on August 26th, 2008 by admin
August 25, 2008: Music copyright giant BMI grew its revenues 7.2 percent in the 2008 fiscal year, earning $901 million. BMI’s distributions to artists also increased from last year, up 8 percent with $786 million paid to songwriters, composers, and copyright owners it represents.
“Our pro-technology and pro-business attitude has made it possible for BMI to continue to grow our revenues more than 7 percent each year, on average over the past 10 years, almost doubling our income in that period,” said BMI President/CEO Del Bryant.
Broadcast radio and television accounted for $340 million, or 38 percent of revenues, while satellite radio combined with cable and satellite TV brought in more than $208 million, or more than 23 percent of revenues. (RadioInk)
Remerge Note: BMI is up 7% each year over the past 10 - and radio has been off 3-7% each month over the last 13-months… while picking up 38% of BMI’s yearly profits… and radio’s the one screwing the record industry? Maybe it’s time congress considers a windfall tax on BMI - lord knows there is plenty of gas coming out of that organization.
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Posted on August 25th, 2008 by admin
The days of putting millions of dollars against something without being able to track its effectiveness are soon to be over.
Enter CRM.
As the U.S. economy worsens and consumers rein in discretionary spending, brands are ramping up their customer-relationship-management efforts, aiming to grab some of that money by building one-to-one relationships with consumers.
Feel-good talk about leveraging CRM — the art of using tools such as database maintenance and customer segmentation — to boost understanding of consumers isn’t anything new. Ask around, though, and industry folks will tell you 2008 is shaping up to be the year in which companies put their money where their mouths are — with a looming recession making brands more sensitive than ever about the returns on their marketing investments. CRM-software-industry global revenue is projected to jump 14.2% this year to $8.9 billion, according to research house Gartner. (AdAge)
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Remerge Note: Remerge has been sounding the steady drumbeat about shifting from click-through, impression mentality to engagement offerings. See: Which Metrics Matter, Steps To An Integrated Campaign, or either of our Special Reports.
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Posted on August 20th, 2008 by admin
CL King & Associates senior analyst and senior VP Jim Boyle said on Tuesday (Aug. 19) that radio’s July revenue will be down 6%-7% — worse than the Street’s projections of a 4% drop. Responding to his own question, “What are radio leaders doing to change direction?” Boyle said, “Not much, it seems to us. The industry’s larger groups do not appear ready to institute revolutionary changes yet in sales, programming, promotion or station clusters. There is a notable sense of denial of how harsh the prospects have been and continue to be for radio. The classic CEO reply is that radio is not bleeding as badly as newspapers. We concede there is too little radio ad demand, but there is also too little rate card integrity and too little investment in radio’s product and people for the long-term. It very much looks to us as all rear-guard counter-punching.” (R&R)
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